Keywords

FlavonoidNaloxoneRutinFlumazenilAnticonvulsant Activity

Background

Rutin is a flavonoid of the flavonol type, is found in many typical nutrimental plants and is an important dietary constituent of food and plant-based beverages. It has biological and pharmacological activities, rutin exhibits antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, antithrombic, cytoprotective and vasoprotective activities [1–4].

Materials and methods

Adult male rats were cannulated into intracerebroventricular (i.c.v). The anticonvulsant effects of rutin were investigated using the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure model. The animals were placed individually in plastic boxes and observed immediately after PTZ injection for a period of 30 min. Rutin, diazepam and normal saline were injected i.c.v. at the doses (25-150 nmol), (10 ml/kg) and (5mg/kg) respectively 30 minutes before PTZ (90 mg/kg, i.p). The latency to minimal clonic seizure (MCS), generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS) and percent of mortality protection were recorded, as well as the percentages of protection against the mortality.

Also, for investigating the mechanism of rutin, flumazenil (5 mg/kg) and naloxone (10 mg/kg) were also injected 5 minutes before rutin.

Results

In this study In PTZ-induced epileptic seizures, the i.c.v. injection of rutin at doses of 150 mg/kg prolonged the time MCS and reduced the GTCS latancy. The protective effect of rutin against lethality was 20%. In this study, flumazenil (5 mg/kg, i.c.v.) reversed the anticonvulsant activity of rutin. Also, pretreatment with naloxone (10 mg/kg, i.c.v.) antagonized the prolongation of tonic-clonic seizure latency as well as the reduction in seizure duration induced by rutin (200 mg/kg, i.c.v.).

Conclusions

As the results it seems that rutin as a flavonoid, could inhibit PTZ-induced epileptic seizures and may have anticonvulsant activity.

Declarations

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Vice Chancellor of Research, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences for financial support.

Authors’ Affiliations

(1)

Dep of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran

(2)

Dep of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran